Charles Flay Tapscott:

Was Never in the Confederate Army.

by Terry Foenander.

In January, 2006, a member of the American Civil War Round Table of Queensland, James Mason Gray, sent a message to the Rootsweb Tapscott Archive message board, requesting information on Charles Flay Tapscott, who died in Collingwood, in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1904, and whom Mr. Gray very confidently claimed to have been a soldier in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.   Gray’s message, addressed to Patricia A. Baber, and grandly titled “AN HISTORIC TAPPSCOTT IN AUSTRALIA – Charles Flay Tapscott” included the following statements, and I quote: “I am trying to find information on a Tappscott for the Australian Memorial Website, www.acwv.info, to honor him as a veteran of the American Civil War buried in Australia.   I am hoping you, or someone you know can help.   Charles Flay Tapscott was born in England, married Mary Anne Flay at Culmstock Devon in 1832, went to the United States and then turned up in Australia.   While in the United States, during the American Civil War, Charles enlisted iin the 55^th Virginia Infantry, Company F, and also served in Company F of the 52^nd Kentucky Infantry.”

Pages from the Rootsweb Tapscott Archive online, showing the message sent by Jim Gray, in which he confidently states that Charles Flay Tapscott, who died in Australia, had served in the Confederate Army. Note that, at no time, does Mr. Gray indicate that this is only an assumption, or that there is absolutely no proof or evidence for his statements, a trait which is typical in all of his biographies online.

It was fairly obvious from these statements that Mr. Gray had not even bothered to do his sums, and indulge in some basic, but serious research, else he would have realised several errors exist in these statements, excluding the spelling errors and incorrect year of marriage.   These errors should have been more than sufficient to indicate that Charles Flay Tapscott, buried in Australia, was most definitely not the same person as the two different (I emphasise, once more, different) soldiers named Charles F. Tapscott, one who served in the Virginia Infantry, and the other, also named Charles F. Tapscott, who served in the Kentucky Infantry.   Additionally, these research procedures, if they had been undertaken, would have shown that the Virginia Charles F. Tapscott, and the Kentucky Charles F. Tapscott, were both born in different years, and were born in their respective states, one in Virginia, and the other in Kentucky.   Thus, an ordinary mathematician would have come to the simple but logical conclusion that neither of them could have been the same person, Charles Flay Tapscott, who was actually born in England, and died in Victoria, Australia.   All it would have taken were simple checks of the military records, as well as census details of both these soldiers, together with the vital records relating to Charles Flay Tapscott, available for a small fee from the English and Australian sources of such information.   But Mr. Gray is well known for his constant reluctance to pay anything for such vital documents, and has been known to complain over losing the small sum of $10 (as was shown when he and his wife lost this sum to some dealer in the United States, and went online to make a complaint about this loss).

Even a cursory check of Internet sources would have already shown that there was more than ample evidence to disprove altogether the claims that Charles Flay Tapscott had ever served in the Confederate Army, as research conducted by Tapscott’s own great grand daughter, Ms. Sue Swiggum, and placed on a Tapscott research web site, in July, 1997, showed that through Ms. Swiggum’s thorough (and obviously well documented) research, it was a proven fact that Charles Flay Tapscott had actually been residing in the Northern states during the Civil War, and had fathered two of his five children (from his American marriage) during the actual years of the conflict (these were Frank Leander Tapscott, born June, 1861 in Massachusetts, and Willie Forrest Tapscott, born in October, 1864, in the state of Maine).

Simple research procedures were never adhered to, and thus the element of truth was sadly lacking, in any of the statements made by Mr. Gray, about the Civil War service of Charles Flay Tapscott.   As with every one of his biographies on the Civil War veterans, and those who were never in the Civil War, but claimed to have been so by Mr. Gray, proper and thorough research was avoided, and assumptions were made in respect to many of these persons, buried in Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

Thankfully, Mr. Gray must have finally realised that his statements about Charles Flay Tapscott were totally illogical and that his assumptions about Tapscott were incorrect, as the biography was never included at his web site.   Thankfully also, we have the proven online records that show what Mr. Gray had arrogantly, supremely and confidently assumed about Charles Flay Tapscott’s supposed service in the Confederate Army.

Unfortunately, though, there are many, many other assumptions that have been made by Mr. Gray, about other persons buried in Australia and New Zealand, but for which there is insufficient, or no evidence whatsoever, to show service in the American Civil War.

Page Created, May, 2008.